Víkingur Ólafsson: Opus 109 album review – The pianist’s concept album opens transcendent horizons | classical music

DVíkingur Ólafsson tends to follow the herd and record Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas as a work piece, and he has chosen to circle one of them, No. 30 in E major, Op 109, and locate it in a musical timeline that reflects the composer’s past and the Viennese environment of the early 18th century.

For Olfsson, looking back means turning to Bach, whose musical fingerprints he discovered all over Beethoven. He argues that the latter’s unrestrained invention has its roots firmly in the Baroque with its improvisational elements and enthusiasm for dance.

The album begins with Bach’s E major Overture from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (in fact, all the works here are in either E major or E minor, keys that the Icelandic pianist, a synesthete, associates with different shades of green). The notes that sounded with subtle baroque detachment transition into a transparent reading of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, op. 90, a work that Álafsson sees as a direct precursor to op. 109.

A clear narration of Bach’s final part offers a major palate cleansing, before Schubert’s rarely heard Piano Sonata No. 6 in E minor – a work that in its context seems indebted to Beethoven’s Op 90. The smooth glide into the long-awaited Op 109 is breathtaking. Not only does Olafsson bring exceptional variety to his expression here, but it is also one of the most beautiful narrations on record.

Traditionalists may wonder, but for those willing to go along with his ideas, Olafsson opens transcendent vistas for a brave new world.

Stream it on Apple Music (above) or on Spotify